Vicar's Column June 2019

By Church OfficeSt John the Baptist Parish Church

“For it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” Philippians 2:13

One of our vision priorities for this year is Deepening Discipleship. Christian spirituality/discipleship is about being confirmed into the likeness of Christ and life lived in the Spirit. It is about the whole of life, not just something that happens on a Sunday. How are you called to be more Christ-like in your life? Sometimes we need some help teasing that out. The diocese has devised a Personal Discipleship Plan(PDP), an accompanied faith journey that can be taken with a mentor provided by the church. The idea is that those who wish to participate meet with their mentor to identify core gifts and steps for development. There may be something you want to try out in church but equally, the focus may be something in your work or community life. Participants would then meet with their mentor again in three or so months to see how things are going.

The six questions at the core of the PDP, forming the “Called” acronym are summarised as follows:

Core gifts – What are my gifts? Am I sharing them in my everyday life?

Attracted by – Where may God be calling me?...

Listening – Where am I being guided to gain experience or insights?

Life plan – What is happening in my life now?

What would I be doing if I could invent my ideal future?

Experience – What energises me from my current and past experience?

Discipleship – How am I deepening my daily spiritual life and faith?

We were pleased to welcome Revd Tina Molyneux, the Diocesan Discipleship enabler, to our PCC meeting on Tuesday 21stMay to speak about this and there is going to be a wealth of resources available on the diocesan website. In the meantime, look out for the next edition of the Diocesan Pathways magazine which will have more information and stories to tell. If you would be interested in going through the PDP process, then please speak to me. Equally we will be looking for suitably gifted people to become mentors, for which training will be provided. Other churches that have piloted this have found it to be a very worthwhile experience and it has been incorporated into our Deanery Plan, so it would be great if St John’s could join in….